The Best In Us All
by Minion of Set
Summary: Aang believed the best of those who would kill him. Because they needed it most.
1. The Strike From Behind

Aang gave people the benefit of the doubt. Good dwelled within everyone. Some required help to bring it out. That was his job as the Avatar.

And there was _a lot_ of buried good in the Fire Nation to bring out.

It didn't escape him that his naturally cheerful disposition could be harmful. It could blind him. He'd refused to see how twisted Jet was, even after Sokka's warnings.

Still, Aang chose to believe in the best residing within others.

So he decided the girl hailing fire from the above chute was just doing what she'd been taught in an era of war. (If he hadn't sworn off firebending forever, he would have been enthusiastic to learn how she made it _blue_!).

And she was better at it than Zuko.

It wasn't only the Fire Nation that was misguided, though. The Northern Water Tribe had attacked Appa on sight. And that crazy Earth Kingdom general had attacked them as well. Each act of violence born from desperation to end the war. The problem was fighting and the solution was more fighting. That was all the people born into this world knew: Fighting. War. Loss.

Aang knew better. He hailed from a different world. After he defeated Fire Lord Ozai (Aang shivered), he and Bumi, as representatives of the past, could show this new world how things were meant to be. How each culture could thrive in harmony and cooperation, not domination and strife.

Like every soldier that attacked him, Aang knew he and the girl could have been friends a hundred years ago. Aang could have been friends with all of them, as he had been with Kuzon.

Well... maybe not Zhao, but even then Aang would have tried!

As she chased him down the chutes of Omashu's mailing system, Aang didn't detest her. He didn't want to hurt her. If not for the war, she could have been a perfectly nice young lady. Perhaps she was in her free time?

Even if she had refused to trade the governor's son for Bumi… And tried to incinerate Aang _before_ discovering his identity.

He sent a soft gust of wind at the latest in a long line of pursuers, hoping to deter her. Maybe knock her off balance. She clapped her hands together and broke through with manicured nails.

He caught a good look at her expression and... even as he clung to believing in others... The smirk of cruel amusement did give Aang _some_ doubts. He'd seen a lot of rage and fury directed at him, but never anything like that.

It almost seemed he, the Avatar, was the problem. No matter how he abided the air temple principles of live and let live, his presence inspired violence. He managed to help people, but Aang couldn't ignore the trail of destruction following as the Fire Nation hunted him. Kyoshi Island. Hei Bai's scorched forest. The North Pole.

Gyatso's corpse rotting in the Western Air Temple.

The world would not remain that way. It wasn't the legacy he wanted to leave behind. Aang wanted peace in his wake. He couldn't answer the violence with greater violence.

As he passed under a tunnel of wooden beams overhead, Aang saw the opportunity he always searched for, to end matters peacefully. He swung his staff. An arc of wind cut the beams like paper. A technique he would never use against a living creature.

The pillars tumbled onto the path. She would have to abandon the pursuit.

Seeing an empty cart clear the debris, Aang breathed a sigh. Hopefully she hadn't been hurt too badly.

Then she shot up and threw a blue wave, forcing him to duck. He looked at her with fear. She was a persistent one. Reminded him of Zuko.

Monkey feather, was he dealing with that all over again?

In the end, nothing Aang did stopped her. A boulder burst from the smooth surface of the chute to save himself and Bumi. Her face expressed the surprise he felt. The firebender avoided the collision by abandoning the cart. She landed smoothly.

He would have offered her a jaunty wave except he realized Bumi could still earthbend!

* * *

Azula watched with calm ire as the Avatar escaped with the king. A cold sting festered in her stomach. The crown princess had never experienced such a thing.

Failure.

She had lost both the valuable hostage and her opportunity to capture the greatest threat to her family's rightful conquest.

In her mind peered the face of her father, a visage of savage disappointment. Zuko's clumsy failures frequently invoked it.

Azula would not be the target of Fire Lord Ozai's scorn, not ever. She was the perfect instrument of his will, that would never be cast aside. The perfect princess who would bring him honor and glory.

So how had the Avatar managed to slip from her grasp when he'd been in striking distance? That was suitable when it happened to Zuko, but she the pride of the Fire Nation.

Though she had not anticipated the Avatar's presence in the exchange. And it was her first time encountering the lost art of airbending after all…

No. Excuses were befitting her worthless brother. She would defeat the Avatar in their next encounter. And she still had to track down the errant members of the royal family. So much for a good princess to accomplish.

She proceeded down the chute at a leisurely pace. They would be long gone by now. The Avatar's nimbleness in fleeing was a well accounted, unending source of frustration for the army.

Azula contemplated her new enemy, the last airbender. She recalled the diligent study passed down her royal bloodline from her great-grandfather, free of the propaganda that kept commoners in line.

It remained their birthright and duty to hunt the Avatar. Some had thought him long dead. Father certainly didn't think Zuzu had any prayer of succeeding. But the airbender had finally surfaced. Perhaps she would thank Zuzu for his legwork when she had them side by side in chains.

Azula smirked.

He was a boy. A child, all of twelve. Yet his tattoos belonged only to an airbending master. The youngest age Sozin recorded had been seventeen. She concluded the Avatar to be a prodigy. Even Azula, gifted as she was, had not become a master until recently, when she mastered the art of lightning.

It explained why the Avatar seemed capable of earthbending already. Zhao's report hypothesized he had searched for a master in the North Pole. She had expected proficiency only in airbending and waterbending.

Although... Azula did not banish the possibility that the king had bent the earth. Otherwise, wouldn't the Avatar would have done so earlier? If that were the case, that he had not begun earthbending, it was crucial to capture him quickly.

He could easily disrupt and destroy many of her country's ambitions. Two saving graces prevented this.

Firstly, he could still be snuffed out before reaching his full potential. Even _if _he could attain mastery of four elements before Sozin's Comet returned, his was still a child. He could be dealt with before his power matured. This would be aided by his second fault.

The Avatar was weak. He didn't want to harm anyone. He would rather flee than confront. Avoid and evade. He had the power, yes, but not the will to hone and exercise it as needed. Only the royal family had both.

He was… merciful. It would be his undoing.

As she neared the ground, Azula paused. She blinked her golden eyes and took in the bizarre sight of the ancient earthbender rolling up toward her, still encased in his metal coffin. As inferior as the other elements were, Azula was reluctantly impressed with the feat. She supposed with age came experience.

She did not brace herself or prepare for a fight. Azula was always prepared to strike, and preferred it not be seen coming.

He stopped by her feet. The imprisoned king gave her a smile gaped by age. "Good evening, Princess. If you'll pardon me, I'm on my way up. May I offer you a lift?"

She pierced him with her stare, wondering what gambit he could be playing. She detected not a trace of deceit.

"You did not escape with the Avatar?" Azula demanded.

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a surrender if I did, would it?"

So some earthbenders are reasonable? "No, I suppose not."

"Care to join me?" he asked again.

She stared down into his eyes, one glazed with blindness. With an inward shrug, Azula stepped over his face, planting her boots on the metal box.

They rolled up the chute.

It suited her to have an earthbender at her feet, serving a purpose to her, one higher than himself. By decree of Sozin this was the natural order.

She would have thought an earthbender alive before the conquest would be the most stubborn of all. Yet he knew his place. He must have realized the inevitability of defeat. Subservience was preferable to death.

Those who refused to learn this would perish in ashes.

As she considered the merits of having earthbenders carry her palanquin, the king spoke up.

"So, what brings you to Omashu?" he asked as one might a traveler.

She smirked. "Omashu is dead. This city is New Ozai."

"New Ozai?" The king cackled. It did nothing to impede their trek. "That's a good one! Your father must be proud."

She examined her pedicure. "He has every reason to be."

"I have a feeling that I owe you my thanks for arranging this trade, Princess. An old man doesn't get to see his friend very often." As they came upon the fallen wooden beams, the king swept away debris from the Avatar's failed tactic.

Azula had more or less inserted herself after the governor offered the trade, but saw no benefit in correcting him. Instead she found an interesting thread to unravel.

"A friend of the Avatar's, are you?" she asked.

"Oh yes, Aang and I go waaay back. Before the war, you know?"

She smirked as she processed how this information might be useful. "I'll be sure to tell him you said hello when next we meet."

He laughed. "Go easy on Aang, he's not used to having girls chase after him. He's still at that _weird_ age."

She frowned and contemplated singeing his facial hair. "Are you insane or senile?"

"I am definitely one of those things. But I can't seem to remember which."

Azula drummed her fingers on her thigh. This entire debacle seemed out of sync with the Avatar at the center of it. Kidnapping a baby didn't suit his psychological profile at all.

"Perhaps you can search your memory. I'm not acquainted with any air nomads, but is it their custom to snatch babies from their cribs?"

She hadn't expected the former king to laugh. Everything seemed to roll of his shoulders. It disconcerted her. People hid information and feelings to guard themselves from harm. Bumi hid nothing, yet still seemed untouchable. What a strange old coot.

"I can't imagine the adventure that lead little Tom-Tom out with the exodus. You'll see. If I know Aang, and I do, that baby will be returned safe and sound before you know it!"

"Is that so?" she asked herself quietly.

"Sure is!" He had excellent hearing for an elderly man.

They reached the top of chute. Ty Lee, Mai, and contingent of guards awaited her.

"Here's our stop, Princess."

She regarded him with a raised brow before jumping off. The king righted himself.

"Wow, you can earthbend with just your face?" Ty Lee said in admiration.

The relic nodded proudly. "This mug ain't just for show!"

"I didn't know that was possible!"

Mai approached Azula's side. "I think she's found a kindred spirit."

Azula smirked. "You men," she pointed at the earthbender, "return the prisoner to his suspension."

"I didn't know he could still earthbend. Should we do something about it?" Mai asked. A reasonable question.

"No," she answered after a moment. She couldn't appear too ready to answer any question. She needed Mai waiting for her response. "His surrender is genuine. He could have escaped with the Avatar if he chose. Besides," she continued, walking away, "he could only bend because he's on the ground."

Mechanical noise tickled her ears as the crane lifted him high.

"Okay, bye ladies! Travel safely and don't take rock candy from strangers!"

"Bye, King Bumi," Ty Lee said as she waved. "What a nice old man," she said to the group.

Mai said her goodbyes to her distraught parents and they were ready to depart. Though each girl came from substantial wealth, none required many possessions. Mai had her nail polish and weapons. Ty Lee her pink cloths. Azula her headpiece.

The royal procession relished their last opportunity and honor of carrying her. Ty Lee teased Mai about the prospect of seeing Zuzu again. It would be delicious to watch their awkwardness amplified by his circumstance.

A hunch continued to tug at the princess. She decided not to ignore it. Her instincts were reliable.

"Stop."

The palanquin halted immediately.

"What's the matter, Azula?" Ty Lee asked, large grey eyes peeking at Azula's peripheral.

Azula ignored her. "Take us back. Mai, have your father prepare rooms for Ty Lee and myself."

"Don't tell me we're staying after all," Mai said in her even-tempered tone. Only close friends could detect her dread at the prospect of remaining within New Ozai.

"I have a private matter in the city that requires my attention. We shall leave in the morning."

There was no argument of course. Azula's word was second only to her father's and he wasn't present, save for the giant statue looming over the city. She'd have her own someday.

Azula waited on the rooftop, alone with the dead of night. From her perch she spied the governor's residence; it stood out as the only building with the sleek style of her country. Dusk camouflaged her against the dark roof tiles.

It was a hunch that the king's words might hold more truth in them than he realized. If it turned out she was wrong, no one would know. She couldn't have Mai and Ty-Lee seeing her look foolish. They would lose the fear that kept them under her control.

She spotted him, flying over the home of New Ozai's governor, Mai's baby brother strapped to his chest with a harness. Ignorant that he himself was being observed, the Avatar spied down, perhaps at Mai offering a handkerchief for her sobbing mother. What else would a mother be good for?

The Avatar jumped down. He rose a moment later, the harness empty.

He could have fled then, but the Avatar stayed a moment, watching what was no doubt a heartwarming reunion of parents and child.

A lovely last sight.

Azula swirled her arms, separating the positive and negative to summon and guide the cold-blooded fire. The white x of the harness made his back the perfect target.

He looked down, then, catching the shadow of sparks she created. The Avatar spun just as she released the lightning.

Stone tiles shattered in every direction as her power struck. Gravity pulled the Avatar down from his jump. For a moment their eyes were level. His wide and startled with fear, hers narrowed with anger and frustration.

He fell from sight. She heard the snap of his glider, then watched as he flew away. She considered another attack, then dismissed the notion as a waste of energy. His speed was too great and her lightning unable to cover the distance. Father's would have.

He vanished before she could have generated enough power. Wind carried the baby's cries through the night.

* * *

I have two major problems with this awesome series. First the romance between Aang and Katara. I found it dry, ironically. It's the only aspect of the show that was 'good for a kids' show'. It was typical love at first sight. Boring. It was mostly Aang crushing on Katara. They talked about it once after Aang kissed her. She was confused, then the war was over, she wasn't.

Could have been done much better. I was left feeling that a super true romance for the main character had to get in the story. I don't feel this way about any other couple.

I might be biased though, as I just don't like Katara as a character... But she has some great sarcastic lines. Still, a story devoted to Aang or Katara with different people has to start at before the series finale. After that, it looks like one two timing the other. That's why I started at their first encounter.

Azuulaang is the most fascinating pairing to me. How it comes about, through character development for them both. The dynamics in it. It has a dangerous appeal.

However, I feel the danger is often understated. For the convenience of this odd couple to be together, it is overlooked how truly sick Azula is. In her mind, genocide and conquest are things to be proud of. That cultural outlook has conditioned her mind from birth. It must be addressed. That is one purpose of this story.

Secondly, I don't like how Aang never overcame his nature of running. And was rewarded for it. There is a perfect moment in the second season where this should have stopped, but it didn't. Aang never had to make the choice of killing Ozai or finding an alternative. An alternative found him. I think energy bending is cool an all, but the way they never built up Aang's 'thou shalt not kill' dilemma, until the last four episodes, was weak.

Those are the concerns of this story. Please tell me what you think.


	2. Fanciful Musings

Aang's spine tingled at the sight of her. It happened every time he had thought about that night, when she emerged from the shadow to do something he hadn't known possible. Only now the feeling returned with one hundred times the force.

He'd known since meeting her eyes that it wouldn't be their last encounter.

He'd told Katara and Sokka about it, mostly to heap some terror off his chest and partly because they should know what firebending could and _would_ do in certain hands.

Katara fussed over him, which he enjoyed. She hadn't found any injuries but a few cuts and nicks from the fragments of exploding tile.

She'd been whipped into a fury that the firebender would attack while he was delivering the governor's son.

Aang felt the need to inform her Tom-Tom had been safely in his parent's arms by that time. At least she hadn't attacked him until the baby was safe.

Katara chided him for giving the firebender even that much credit. He couldn't help it. In his book, it showed that she wasn't all bad.

Aang didn't think he'd ever be the beneficiary of her good side though.

His waterbending master insisted that to strike another warrior from behind was a despicable tactic. Aang decided not to mention she'd kind of done the same thing to Master Pakku, though without lethal intent.

Despite being her brother, and therefore possessing the years of experience this entailed, Sokka did not share his wisdom. He got off with a warning look before Katara huffed and said that had been different.

She didn't get any argument, but that probably wouldn't have been the case had Toph been with them then. The girls had been at each others' throats all night.

Now, as a group of four, they held the numerical advantage against the oncoming trio riding the backs of mongoose-dragons. Especially with such a prodigious earthbender by their side.

Well, Toph dismissed Sokka's warrior skills, but Aang knew he was an asset. Besides...

"Only the girl in the middle can firebend, Toph," Aang said.

Sokka nodded furiously. "That's right! You gonna count them!?"

Toph cracked her neck on both sides. "Well then, this should be easier than I thought."

Earth spikes burst under each attacker, but the reptiles crawled over them without faltering or throwing off their riders.

As they approached, Aang hurriedly shared the most important bit of information. "Toph, she can shoot lightning."

"She can _what_?"

"How about we get out of here before it comes to that?" Sokka urged, already headed for Appa's saddle. Aang and Katara followed as Toph raised a wall of earth to dwarf the mongoose dragons.

From his airborne bison, Aang watched as she conjured the streaks of light and heat that haunted him. The explosion carved a hole for the lizards to crawl through. The destruction made him think of Jeong Jeong's lessons. But this firebending was precisely controlled.

Toph launched herself up before the gloomy girl's knives struck, landing next to Aang.

"Whoa," Toph said.

Aang nodded grimly.

"I still don't like this running away. We should stand our ground and fight. When a challenger comes to _my_ ring, I show him the way out."

"Get used to it," Sokka said through a yawn. "Running from firebenders is kind of our thing."

"Don't underestimate them," Katara warned. Aang felt her tensing up with fear. Katara didn't want to lose her bending again.

Aang wouldn't let harm befall his friends.

* * *

Azula wordlessly rode her mount back into the stable car of the tank train. Her friends quickly followed.

Her twin advisers, Lo and Li, would continue rotating shifts of driving the vehicle. Meanwhile, Mai, Ty Lee, and herself would rest between each attack, wearing down the Avatar and his companions.

Azula altered their sleep schedule to be the antipode of their target, waking up refreshed the moment the Avatar would begin setting up their hovel of a camp.

She'd realized the attack could not end when sky beast was out of sight. They could not wait even the next day to track him down. The Avatar was simply too talented at escape. He'd evaded capture and extermination for one hundred years already.

Bringing the Avatar down required continuous, unrelenting pursuit. Each attack would be more brutal than the last as their resistance withered. She would be struck every time the bison landed.

The bison could not fly indefinitely. One of many disadvantages of relying solely on beasts for transport. Machines, however, required only fuel and oil to function. Azula exploited every advantage.

And the beast made it easy to track them over hundreds of miles. Simpleton airbender. Letting the sky bison leave a trail of hair for them to follow.

Azula retreated to her private car, furnished with decor befitting the Crown Princess. What space she had represented a small taste of luxury that awaited her victorious return to the palace. Red curtains, silken sheets, a tasteful tapestry of Sozin's Comet, worth more than three decades of peasant wage.

She couldn't say the same awaited Zuzu and her hippo-cow of an uncle. Perhaps Father would send them to the Boiling Rock? She became giddy at the thought of her final victory in the one-sided sibling rivalry.

Azula shut her eyes and knelt on the cool, metal floor. She timed the in and out, the shallowness and depth of her breath, the key to firebending. Had Zuzu ever figured that out?

Blue fire tipped four candles, one in each corner of the room. The flames grew and diminished as dictated by her will. Four identical fires blooming in unison. Then each at different heights. They reached for the ceiling and fell in a competitive song and dance.

The meditation kept her mind sharp, her senses alert. She would not sleep. The hunt would end long before that need came. When next she slept, the Avatar would be captured or dead.

Azula didn't share the pervasive obsession with taking him alive. Understandable for her brother, she supposed. Zuzu pined to reclaim his honor, and as a man without honor, his word held no value. He needed the proof of a body at least; charred remains would be called into question.

But Zhao should have turned the airbender to ashes the moment he'd been captured. The ambitious fool had likely wanted to present the Fire Lord with a living trophy, as all nobles of the court bore witness, inflating his ego.

She understood the appeal of this glory. Azula embodied it. And Zhao like all others envied the royal family's dominance, as well he should.

Regardless, killing the Avatar remained the simplest method. It wasn't as if a toddler would be a threat to the Fire Nation. With Sozin's Comet approaching, the war would end as it began. They could simply destroy the whole of inferior nations.

Melt every iceberg the Water Tribe hid behind, and the newborn Avatar would simply drown in that benign cesspool. Frostbitten savages provided no use to the world's rulers.

The crowning achievement her country thirsted for would arrive in a few months. They would rain fire upon Ba Sing Se from their developing airships, sailing over its futile walls. Domestication of the Earth Kingdom's population would proceed smoothly after the war ends. Every earthbender would be imprisoned or slain. Eventually the crude tradition would die out.

It won't matter who the Avatar is if the roots of bending are lost. Even if the next Avatar discovered their bending, it would take years to train them, and by that point Azula would snuff them out. It could even be a family vacation, or a task for her children.

Then what to do when the Avatar is born in the Fire Nation? That would be interesting. Perhaps her child would have the honor. That seemed suitable to her, having that power wielded by her bloodline.

Ah, but who would teach them the other arts? Certainly there would earthbenders willing to sell their services. A simple taste of luxury would be enough to hook them. People will take any opportunity to crawl out from their poverty.

The warning bell disrupted her fanciful musings. Azula opened her eyes and let the flames die.

Lo… or was it Li's shift to steer the vehicle? Either way, the trail had been spotted.

Azula stood and stretched, ready to kill. She had let fantasy overtake her in relaxation.

The world didn't need an Avatar to keep balance. It had Azula to enforce imperial will. It wasn't as if the cycle would continue anyway. There would be no airbenders left.

She and the girls rode out, following the white trail. It lead them to a river where they found... 'clumps' Ty Lee and Mai decided.

So they'd finally smartened up and washed the sky beast's fur. Too late.

It fooled Mai, but Azula keenly saw through the shamefully desperate ruse. The damaged treetops were a dead giveaway.

She assigned the capture of the others to her team and followed a trail the Avatar so generously left for her to find.


	3. I'm Not Running

Aang knew his ploy had partly failed as only one lizard rode past the setting sun. He would have preferred if all three had come to him, so Katara and Sokka could escape to safety. Katara especially feared the chi-blocker.

She would have to face that fear. Aang would have to face his. He found solace that the most dangerous of the three girls had tracked him down.

He could have run. He almost had. His glider had been in hand, ready to take him wherever he wanted. Leading the girls to an abandoned town would have been a good practical joke.

Aang would have found it funny if he'd been in a joking mood. Instead he felt tired. Not just physically, but emotionally. He'd yelled at his earthbending teacher, accused her of weighing them down. And she'd left.

He might never get to learn from Toph, might never get to meet her again. But her attitude left its impression on the airbender. Standing and fighting. Facing down the enemy.

Avoiding and evading was more than what he'd been taught. It was Aang's nature. Fleeing conflict. Sokka was right; it was his specialty. It's what brought him to this time, away from the murder of his people, to meet new friends.

Today the tactic failed them. Repeatedly. His group was scattered and exhausted. Aang realized they should have stayed to fight them off the first time. They hadn't been as tired. They'd been together.

Instead of running, he collapsed his glider and sat. He didn't use the negative jing of retreating that came to him as easily as airbending. Aang used the third jing. Neutral jing.

She dismounted, trampling over the dead fur. Her steps shrank the distance. For a few seconds the only thing Aang could hear was his own heartbeat.

She stopped to regard him with one hand on her hip. It reminded him of a word Katara used to describe some of the richer girls in the Northern Water Tribe. Haughty.

Aang waited and listened.

"Nothing to say?" she asked with that smirk.

It was confident and maybe a little hungry, like a wolf-bat. Some might call it arrogant. But she had the skill of a master. That danger made Aang face her on his own, so his friends wouldn't get hurt. And she _would_ hurt them.

"I'm Aang."

She raised an eyebrow. "What delightful manners." She tilted her head, never taking her gaze from him, but emphasizing her hairpiece. "Azula, Crown Princess to the throne." She spread her hands grandly as she said this, as if basking in her own presence.

"Is there any way to resolve this without fighting?" he asked.

Azula laughed, but it didn't sound like any laughter he'd ever heard. It carried its own chill in the humid air. "I suppose you could just sit there. Though I prefer _moving_ targets." She held her arms loosely at her sides. It might have looked relaxed to the untrained eye.

"You can run now, if you like. You seem good at that."

Aang stood and planted his staff, his free hand in a fist. "I'm not running."

It must have been the sun that made her golden eyes glow in their sockets. "Do you really want to fight me?" she challenged.

"I don't _want_ to fight anyone," Aang said.

"Is that the cowardice that made airbenders so easy to do away with?" she asked dismissively.

Aang's hand tightened around his staff. Maybe his sleep deprivation made him want to fight her... a little.

His anger widened her smirk. "Oh, before I forget, Bumi says hello."

Aang reeled back. "What?"

"You don't remember Bumi?" she asked with dramatic shock. "I'm sure he'd be crushed. He had lots of things to say about his old friend Aang."

Aang's grip tightened around his staff. "What did you do to Bumi?"

"Oh my, but you have a history of leaving people behind, don't you?" Her painted lips widened further. "I'm sure Mai and Ty Lee are finishing off those water tribe peasants as we speak."

Worry for his friends narrowed his focus. He wasn't going to lose anyone else. Aang leveled his staff at the princess.

"Then I don't have time to waste on you."

* * *

Azula read people and played their emotions, pushing them to her advantage. She was naturally gifted, and she'd been encouraged to take command of everything in her presence. To use her total knowledge of a person, their history, their aspirations, their mood. Use everything to transform a person into a tool for furthering her goals.

Rarely, however, her machinations had unintended results.

Everything she had said served to unbalance the Avatar's susceptible, prepubescent mind. The loss he must feel as the last relic of his dead, weak people; desperate attachment to the earthbending king as a result of this.

A stab at his habitual fleeing to make him unsure of fighting, tear his focus between combat as the option of running lingered. A casual mention of his friends at the mercy of her team to make him sloppy.

It worked so easily on Zuzu, already a man, yet so easily distracted by the right words that tore at his heart, his identity. Mention Father's disgust for him and he lashes out.

A weak, merciful boy would be just as mentally feeble if not more so. Azula meant to topple a tired, angry, afraid and confused Avatar.

She'd miscalculated.

The steel in his tightened eyes had amused her.

Then he moved. Barreling at her faster than an arrow. The Avatar sidestepped her stream of fire. He circled around her as if it were a game. Azula swept the ground with her leg. He hopped over the blue fire. She punched toward his chest, he ducked under it without slowing. His speed seemed to grow as he left ghosts of himself trailing in his wake.

Azula felt disruption in her careful breathing. Her vision blurred. The air became thin as the Avatar created a vortex around her. It sucked in debris from the decrepit buildings and the dried up mine.

Objects flying at that speed formed a daunting barrier. She had to chance it. Azula jumped to get out of his deathtrap but the wind lifted her like a leaf. The vortex caused a tightness in her lungs she'd never been anticipated.

She gasped and flailed, trying to set fire to anything she could. The wisps of smoke she conjured would have shamed even Zuko in childhood. The less she could breath, the less focus she exerted on firebending.

She would die.

Father's face wrinkled with disgust as he turned away.

Azula calmed her heart and mind to find the cold place within herself. The place without feeling. No fear or rage. She filled her lungs as much as she could with one long breath. Centered, she exhaled everything, throwing down a heavy blast that spiraled against the base of the funnel.

An new explosion seemed to occur every second as it rang in her ears.

Gravity reasserted itself. She landed in a crouch, her sharp nails dug into the dirt to counter unprecedented shaking in her legs. Black hair a mess around her face and neck, obscuring her vision.

She clutched her throat and drank in air greedily to alleviate the burning in her chest. It was nothing like the breath of fire. It was foreign and unwelcome and she wanted it gone from her body.

She'd never been so disoriented in her life. Never without control.

Growing shadows dotted the ground. She looked up. A rain of rocks and fragments of support beams fell upon the town like comets. Azula shot to her feet. She dodged and blasted debris from the sky with precise gouts of sapphire flame.

Regaining her calm, Azula scanned the area with narrowed eyes, searching for the Avatar.

She found him and blinked in disbelief as he rode away on the back of _her_ mongoose-dragon!

Azula glared at his back. She would never catch up on foot.

The Avatar had bested her.

Then an ostrich-horse barreled into the lizard. The impact threw the riders off as the two mounts scratched, pecked and bite at one another. The Avatar spun his staff overhead, slowing his descent as the other rider tumbled in somersaults before landing on his feet.

The Avatar gasped. "Zuko!"

Her mongoose-dragon gave chase as the bipedal bird ran from the town, leaving just the three of them. No way out. Good.

Seizing opportunities is the basic rule of warfare. Azula circled her arms overhead, throwing them down at her sides. The blast shot her into the air. She curled into a ball, spinning to build momentum. Azula kicked fire that slowed herself while attacking the Avatar and her brother.

He spun his staff to cool and disperse the flame while Zuko built a wall of fire. It pushed him back. That made her feel a bit better.

Another set of twin blasts softened her landing. She glowered at them.

Her brother looked… oh, how he had fallen. He didn't resemble royalty at all. More gaunt in the face. It stretched his scar. And dressed in rags fit for the poorest Earth Kingdom peasants. Such a pitiful sight.

Then again, she might not look her best either, given Zuzu's double-take at her appearance. She would thank the Avatar for that. With lightning. Generous helpings of lightning. And this time she wouldn't miss.

At least she'd like to, but wouldn't have the time necessary, not with two opponents to crush.

Zuko held his hands out at the both of them, his form somewhat improved. "I never thought I'd see you so disheveled, Azula."

The princess bared her teeth in a smile. "You're hardly one to talk, _Zuzu_," she infused the name with all the venom in her being.

Despite exhaustion, fear, and anger, the Avatar snickered. Oh she would give him plenty to laugh about. She'd underestimated what he was capable of and willing to do. That wouldn't happen again.

"Back off, Azula! The Avatar is mine!" So cute when he tried to intimidate.

"You had your chance, Brother. But thanks for saving me the trouble of tracking you down. Where's Uncle?"

From his petulant silence and jaw clamping shut, Azula surmised the old team had split up. Oh well. He wouldn't be difficult to track with no resources.

A three-way standoff, each tracking every shift of body weight and attention. Their gazes fidgeted but Azula kept hers steady.

She knew the best way to strike. Eliminate the weaker of the two, then focus her undivided wrath upon one target.

Azula sharply inhaled to unleash a sudden, decisive strike at her brother.

Until the Avatar spoke.


	4. Liar

"You two can end this," Aang said, quietly.

Opportunity comes in many forms, the monk realized. Zuko's ambush thwarted his escape plan. But perhaps this confrontation was not meant to close as Aang intended.

Air deprivation was a more violent method than Aang would usually implement. Gyatso had warned of the consequences of prolonged suffocation. Not the obvious result of death, but a loss of the brain's full functionality. An airbender using the advanced technique walked a tightrope edge of killing or crippling a target.

Worry for friends brewed inside him, compelling him to get away, feeding the distress that usually prefaced his passing out and waking up to untold destruction. Aang held back enough to prevent the princess from suffering permanent damage. Disoriented and stranded, but alive and able to recover after he was long gone.

Now he stood between two firebenders, a prize for brother and sister to fight over. Not playful bickering the way Katara and Sokka did. Their stances, determined faces... ready to use lethal violence against each other.

Aang never had siblings. Not that he knew of. Air Nomad traditions were carefully crafted to prevent those attachments from forming.

Even before traveling with the Water Tribe siblings, Aang experienced enough of the world to find siblings willing to fight and kill one another a deeply upsetting, unnatural thing. Protecting Sokka and Katara remained his priority, but he didn't want to see Zuko and Azula fighting each other. It was sick. A symptom of the world's illness.

It dawned on Aang that he stood in a duel between two royal heirs to the throne. It couldn't have been coincidence.

And Aang knew his destiny was to end this war. Defeating Fire Lord Ozai wouldn't be the end. One of these two would have to become the new head of the Fire Nation.

Or was sleep deprivation making him loopy?

"You two can end this," he repeated loud enough for them both to hear.

"I intend to," Azula assured, smoke rising from her fingertips.

Struggling not to gulp at her vengeful tone, Aang planted his staff, neither threatening nor defensive.

He shook his head tiredly. "Not this fight. This _war_."

Both firebenders looked at him like he'd grown a second head. That happened sometimes, when he voiced his thoughts.

"Your country has fought for a hundred years." His hand fanned out over the empty expanse, indicating land beyond their sight. "Every nation has suffered. You're both the future of the Fire Nation. And you can help put this world on a different path. A path to peace."

Silence stretched. Aang unsure of what else should leave his dry mouth.

Zuko's face, though, hosted a sliver of uncertainty. He needed a push. Aang felt it. He could reach him. And reaching one would help reach the other.

"I can show you what the world should be. You haven't seen it without suffering. I have. It's beautiful. That's where I want to live." He held his hand out to them, striving to exude humility and non-aggression. "It's where we all deserve to live. Together, we can show the world."

By a near imperceptible margin, Zuko lowered his hands.

Azula threw her head back to laugh. Cackled like a witch. Hand over her mouth.

Zuko's guard snapped up.

Azula calmed, a gleam in her eyes. "Avatar," she purred, sending a familiar chill up his spine, "if the world wanted peace... it would surrender."

She threw both arms out, aiming a blast at Aang's feet and Zuko's chest. Aang jumped onto a building as Zuko stumbled through a boarded up window.

Azula discarded interest in her brother to come after him. She'd wanted Zuko out of the way and guided him upward.

Aang watched her. Nimbly climbing the building with enviable acrobatics. Her movement wasn't as free as Aang's, yet the closest he'd seen from a non-airbender since Jet… or the Blue Spirit.

She ran across the ridge of the roof with impeccable balance.

Aang swept his staff at her. She jumped over the wind crescent, kicked out one leg, used the momentum of her blast to spin, then kicked the other. Aang ducked and wove between them with a flip, then struck downward, sending a vertical crescent.

Azula balanced on her back leg and kicked a stream of fire. The resulting explosion blew wind over her head, her black hair its own whipping flame.

She smirked at him, hands out, one over the other, fingers straight. Her confident expression evaporated as red fire erupted between them. A flurry of such blasts caused the two enemies to dance around the roof as they punched and kicked blasts of fire and air at each other.

An entire section of the roof fell into the house. The fire concentrated on the remaining tiles. Frantically jumping off a collapsing beam, his back collided with hers. He looked over his shoulder into golden eyes. The moment stretched further than possible.

She jumped away, aimed a spinning kick at him. Midair, she flipped and unleashed a stream of sapphire into the building and propelled herself to the next roof.

Aang propelled himself up, swirling his staff as if stirring a pot, gathering air around it. Azula fired up at him. He shed natural wind resistance, plummeted through a hole in the roof and slammed his staff with all the force he could muster.

Howling winds wiped away every flame. Zuko flew out another window. The house exploded into pieces. Aang would have felt guilty if the homes were inhabited.

Instead, he had room for nothing but exhaustion. Most of what he had left went into that blast. Aang's body shook with weakness. Chi enhancing tea would be a great boost right then.

In the streets he heard the rare sound of firebenders dueling each other. Most of the house lay in dest, but a wall shielded him from their sight. Bursts of fire withered at the edge of the brick.

Through cracks in the stone Aang caught peeks of something he'd never seen. Azula swatted away an oncoming fire blast into smoke.

That was the type of firebending he wouldn't mind learning. For now...

Should he escape? He'd stood his ground and confronted the problem, but if the Fire Nation siblings wanted to work things out this way, maybe he'd let them. It's what he sometimes did with Katara and Sokka. And he still had to get back to them.

Aang heard a body tumbling, concurring with Zuko's pained grunts. A familiar sound.

The princess slid to a stop at the now crooked doorway. Her blast came like a comet.

Aang jumped onto what was left of the wall, then out into the street. He ducked under a fiery kick from Zuko. The prince pivoted to stomp on the staff. He kicked at the arrow on his forehead.

Abandoning the instrument, Aang retreated backward, fireballs never letting him touch the ground for too long. He jump over a flight of stairs. Azula chased after him. He ducked into a two-story building with one floor, hovering on an air scooter. Azula rushed in, barely stopping short of the edge.

She looked pretty cute flailing her arms like that. Aang now had time and inclination to offer her a jaunty wave.

She recovered gracefully, just in time to watch Zuko charge in and divebomb to the ground floor.

Distracted by this hilarious sight, Aang gasped when Azula pressed the attack. He hopped off his withering scooter to the remains of the second floor. He zoomed toward her, thrusting his palm against her side. She braced herself before hitting the wall, her arm and leg baring the brunt of it. Even then she managed to land on the ground floor like a crouched cat.

He escaped the building as fire bolts chased his back.

Aang landed in time to see Zuko blasted through the wall. The older boy was really taking a beating today. He always did but this time it didn't look like he'd be up anytime soon.

A shot of fire gave him no time to feel relieved. She for his feet again but had already fired another shot. Aang jumped right into it. He barely managed to spin a shield of air around him before the force struck his stomach. His tattooed arms and legs trailed after him until his back hit a wall.

His mouth opened to scream but nothing came out. Aang had nothing left.

Fire hungrily crawled over the insides of the house to surround him. In his blurred vision approached a golden eyed, ivory skinned spirit with wild hair. Her victorious smirk, he made out clearly.

He struggled to move. She raised her hand. Aang tensed for the burning.

Then came the beautiful sound of a water whip!

His team assembled rapidly, Katara, Sokka, and even Toph made her way back, robbing Azula of all the initiative she'd built. They cornered her, literally trapped her in the corner of an otherwise corroded building, strangely enough, alongside Zuko and Iroh.

Only it didn't feel strange. Despite all that Zuko had put him and his friends through, molding their focus on a common enemy felt right to Aang. He didn't spare the prince a cautionary glance or balance his weight to dodge a fire blast.

Stirrings of comradery from when the Blue Spirit had been his savior and ally. Even as Azula labeled them 'enemies and traitors'. A distinction he wore proudly if she assigned it.

"I can see when I am outmatched. A princess surrenders with honor." She raised her arms in capitulation.

The tiniest bit of relief cooled his mood, but a raindrop is a flood to a man in the desert.

Aang froze. He looked at her face and thought something uncharitable even for his most sour, childish moments.

Liar.

He could not wash away the image of her striking at him from the shadow when he had been at his most relaxed. She wanted their guards lowered so that she could make her move when they didn't see it coming.

But Aang did.

"Toph," he said, almost as if it were someone else talking. But his mind was not muddled with the screaming thoughts and warring emotions of ten-thousand before him.

It was Aang who formed the words, "Sink her."

* * *

Azula prided herself on being excellent in everything she did. Above all, her greatest advantage was emotional control. She didn't react to emotion. She used it as an excavating tool to unveil weaknesses. A careful analysis of the situation decided which feelings, real or feigned, to display. When to display them. With what intensity.

Now before a coalition of enemies, the unprecedented happened without her consideration. Surprise jolted from her mind to etch itself on her face.

She'd been looking for the most vulnerable target to strike among this profane alliance united against her. Old Uncle Iroh had most of her attention. Even though his paunch took up most of her vision by default, his presence was the biggest threat by far. He seemed distracted by the young earthbender for reasons she couldn't fathom.

A perfect strike on the perfect target. Azula wanted to get back at him anyhow, for redirecting her lightning and throwing her overboard her own ship.

Then the Avatar blindsided her yet again, this strange creature that she couldn't understand, who spoke of compassion when he could dominate. He ordered his earthbender to take her down. The princess knew she could not wait to make her move.

He anticipated her, moving before she did, throwing up a current to prevent her arms from snaking down to strike. The ground cracked and swallowed her feet. She sank waist deep. Azula struck out at the savage little earthbender before she could be buried.

Her brother's weaker flame intercepted the blue bolt. It detonated halfway to its target.

Azula reared her hand to throw a burning tide over the group and distract them as she escaped. A whip of water snapped against her wrist before she completed the motion, her fire fizzling out. She sank to her shoulders, the world around her becoming so much larger.

The ground was still loose, pliable from being bent. She could escape with a burst from her entire being. Azula opened her mouth to spew and scream fire at them all, send them scurrying.

A whizzing drowned out her inhale and something struck her head. Her gaze caught the setting sun before turning black.

* * *

REVIEW?...Review?...review?


	5. Sacred

Sokka numbly caught his boomerang after it ricocheted off Azula's head. "Wow." He blinked as if clearing his vision, then boasted a smile tinged with dreary delirium. "We got her!"

"Um, Sokka," Katara called. She stared very deliberately at the remaining, able-bodied firebenders. She did not attack, but her hand hovered over the water skin. "Not the time to celebrate."

Zuko's gaze flickered from Aang only to assess how to get past his friends. It dampened hope that flared brightest just moments ago, that he and the prince could work together, reach an understanding.

Every time he offered a hand, Zuko answered with fire.

Toph gave no heed to the tension. She pointed at Iroh.

"Hey, Old Man, what are you doing with this guy?" Toph demanded, ignoring Zuko's indignant growl at having the finger thrust at him. Her face lit with realization. "Don't tell me…"

"Why, he is my nephew, Zuko." Iroh said, placing a hand on the prince's shoulder. Aang couldn't tell if this was to claim him or restrain him.

Katara looked between Iroh and Toph. "You know him?" she asked disbelievingly, voicing the monk's thoughts.

Toph waved a dismissive hand. "Yeah he gave me some tea and some advice. That's why I came back to save your sorry butts." Her tone made Aang want to smile, if only he weren't dead on his feet.

"So this is the Zuko guy you were talking about earlier? But he doesn't have a ponytail." She looked at, er, rather, turned to Iroh. "And he's your nephew, huh?" She thrust her finger at Zuko again. "Buddy, you cause people a lot of problems, you know that? I just met you and I don't like you!"

"I don't care for your approval, peasant!" Zuko snarled, fists clenched.

"Peasant!" Toph shrieked. "Oh, you're eating dirt for that!"

Aang knew Toph could wipe the floor with Zuko. Literally. But he couldn't help the barely restrained fury drumming in his chest. His exhaustion worked with frustrating circumstance, birthing some darker emotions he tried to keep bottled.

His friends battled danger more frequently the further they accompanied him on his journey. There were many unpleasant burdens with being the Avatar, but this weighed on him most.

Aang ground his teeth. He hated it. Hated the growing worry shooting through his veins with every encounter.

He'd already slackened his restraint against Azula. How far could he be pushed? Aang didn't want to find out. He didn't talk about them, but he still had dreams of himself wreaking carnage.

And he wasn't always in the Avatar State.

Aang stepped past the warm, protective barrier his friends formed. "Zuko." He looked into the prince's glare. The scarred eye widened with surprise. "I really don't trust myself not to hurt you right now."

Behind him, Katara gasped. Sokka's eyes dug into his back.

Toph whistled faintly, seeming to forget her anger. "Where'd _this_ Aang come from?"

Zuko hardened his expression. Fire daggers sprouted from his fists. "Go ahead and try, Avatar."

Iroh stepped between them, agile movement belying his size. "If I may. Perhaps a temporary truce is in order."

"What? Why?" Zuko shouted, already angling to get around his uncle.

"Because last I checked, we had you outnumbered. Three on two!" Aang glanced to see her holding up the fingers on two hands.

Sokka dragged his hand down his face. "For the love of… Give Boomerang some credit, Toph!"

"Well," Iroh stroked his beard the same way Gyatso would before placing a Pai Sho tile. He looked at the unconscious princess. "It seemed to me that you all worked together to capture Azula. The enemy of your enemy.

"Perhaps you should decide what to do before taking any... drastic measures. Azula means us all harm," Iroh explained patiently. How could someone with such tranquility be related to Zuko? "It is in each of our best interests that she is dealt with satisfactorily."

His wording confused the monk.

"What does that mean?" Aang asked. "I don't want to fight her again, but what else are we supposed to do?"

Katara gave him the gentle stare she used on the rare occasion he didn't pick up a waterbending move instantly. "If we let her go, she's just going to come after us again."

Aang frowned. Then found a smile. "Maybe she'll be grateful and then she won't hunt us anymore?" he suggested cheerfully.

In varying degrees of incredulity, everyone gave him that look again, as if he made an antiquated assumption that belonged in the old world.

Toph shook her head. "You poor, deluded, bald sap."

"It didn't work with _him_, did it?" Sokka asked in exasperation, gesturing at Zuko with his boomerang. "You save his life and here he is again to capture you. I told you we should have let him freeze," Sokka growled. Aang cringed from the teeth in his friend's words. "These people don't know anything about _gratitude_."

Iroh turned sharply to face them, eyes silently questioning. Whatever dispute held within resolved with a blink.

"I assure you, though my nephew has his troubles, he is not incapable of recognizing a debt." He looked over his shoulder. "That is honorable, is it not, Prince Zuko?"

Zuko's head snapped back as if struck. His anger gave way to cautious confusion. "They took me prisoner, Uncle," his voice quieter, almost... pleading. "They would have used me as a hostage if I hadn't escaped," he said, regaining some of his snarl. "There is no debt."

Aang frowned. That wasn't what happened, but he would be surprised if Zuko remembered much more than Katara slamming him with an avalanche. He thought it best to keep this to himself.

"Y-you!" Katara sputtered. "Aang helps people! That's what he does, even when they don't deserve it. Don't you dare accuse him of ulterior motives!" Her accolades in his defense made Aang's stomach warm. For just that moment his fatigue faded.

"Besides," Toph grinned, "I don't think banished princes are such valuable bargaining chips."

Aang stiffened as that registered. The prince was... banished?

Every ugly feeling there ever was danced on Zuko's scarred face. "How would you know anything about it!" he roared, the hiss of smoke curling around his words.

Iroh frowned and even though she couldn't see it, Toph seemed to lose her mirth. "Let us not discuss what distracts from the matter at hand. Your life was saved by the Avatar, Prince Zuko. Surely a single reprieve will not compromise your honor?"

As he had when Aang offered peace, Zuko appeared conflicted. Eyes darting from his uncle, to Aang, with an agonized glance skyward.

It did nothing to set them at ease.

He stared at them with his rage at the familiar tipping point that preceded an attack. Aang tensed, gathering air. The earth quivered.

Zuko tore his eyes from the group, shutting them tight. Deep breaths before visibly swallowing down animosity. It came back up with a grunt of fire.

"For now," he grossed, giving new definition to begrudging. "Just this once, Uncle." He stared down at Aang. Contrary to the words, his body language screamed violent intent.

"A _truce_," Zuko cursed. Despite Iroh's assurance, it was clearly a compromise of some sort for the prince. "Leave us. We will deal with Azula."

"Hey, she's _our_ prisoner!" Sokka stated, tightening his grip on his club.

"No she is not!" Zuko said, marching in front of Azula. To Aang, it looked and sounded defensive. Protective even. "This is a matter for the royal family. You have no say!"

"We caught her together," Katara stressed through teeth gritted, "so we'll decide together. She's after _us_. So you better believe we have a say!"

"Aang."

The tone and lack of nickname set his frayed nerves closer to the edge.

Her glassy eyes stared at him. She didn't often bother to look directly at people when speaking. "The Earth Kingdom has a method for dealing with captured firebenders."

"Indeed they do," Iroh said softly, with an echo of sadness.

Zuko looked aghast. "Uncle! You cannot be considering..." He shook his head furiously, unable to finish.

"What are you guys talking about?" Aang asked, looking between them. A sickly feeling settled over him, the same as when he searched the Southern Air Temple for survivors. He was about to hear something he'd rather live without knowing. His muscles twitched with the familiar urge to hop on his glider.

But Aang would not run away. He stayed rooted, braced for the answer.

Toph crossed her arms. "I don't think you'll like it. I'm pretty sure you won't."

"When has that stopped you from speaking your mind?" he asked.

"Hm. Good point." She hammered her fist on an open palm. "Crush their hands."

Aang stared speechlessly, mouth agape.

A hush fell over the lot.

Sokka spoke up. "She's too dangerous. I don't see any alternatives."

Katara rubbed her arm. She did that when unsure, uncomfortable. "I could make sure it isn't too bad. Just enough so that she couldn't hurt us anymore."

"I won't allow it!"

Her posture instantly became aggressive, fists at her sides. She sneered at him. "Oh, so now _you _have someone you want to protect? Someone who tried to kill you. How do you think _we_ feel when you try to capture Aang? He's trying to protect _the world_!"

Aang, not the boy, but the monk, traversed his soul, seeking the consequences of such a punishment. To intentionally cripple Azula. Take away not only her ability to bend, but her quality of life. To feed herself. To care for herself.

To enjoy holding the reigns of an animal in her manicured hands. Something Aang cherished with Appa everyday.

He thought of Teo, who lost use of his legs in an accident. He survived. Thrived, even, soaring the sky as if he'd been born there, with the spirit of an airbender.

But what if someone had done that to him intentionally?

He'd seen far enough behind her eyes to know Azula would inflict this on others. It wouldn't surprise Aang if she already had. But that wouldn't make it right.

And for his friends to do it… the toll of inflicting this punishment would weigh on them for life. It would cost them all something that couldn't be healed or replaced.

He wouldn't let the war get to them. Not like this. And not for him.

Aang shook his head. "We're not going to maim her."

He looked at Iroh, expecting a challenge. Aang blinked when he saw the elder smiling in a knowing, encouraging way.

Toph blew her bangs from her face. "Yeah, I didn't think you'd have the stomach for it."

"I don't," he said flatly. He looked at the girl who inspired nightmares. The sight before him didn't match the lightning wielding monster. Her head tilted listlessly, almost lifeless.

Defeated. Vulnerable. Human.

Aang faced his friends. "Her life is as sacred to me as anyone's."

Katara looked away. Sokka sighed and mumbled about his optimism.

Zuko looked at him, guarded confusion and mild bewilderment. "She'd kill you without batting an eye," he said, as if warning of some hidden nature he was unaware of.

"I know," Aang said. "And I'd save her without hesitation."

Toph shrugged. "Whatever you say, Twinkle Toes. She does seem to have it out for you."

"...Twinkle Toes?" Zuko parroted.

Aang ignored that and spoke to Iroh. "I'd like to take you up on your truce. No fighting until we decide what to do with Azula."

"Sounds good to me. What do you say, Nephew?" Iroh asked with a winning smile.

He scowled and looked away, crossing his arms. "I already said fine."

Iroh nodded happily as if Zuko had agreed with enthusiasm. "I will take the first watch. You kids look like you really need yourselves some sleep."

"Sleep. Good," Sokka mumbled. He looked ready to snooze then and there.

Aang smiled, already feeling his eyelids triple in weight. "We'll be back in half a day," he said to Iroh.

"But, Aang," Katara said, her eyes bouncing from his to the firebenders. "We're going to let a Fire Nation General watch over her? What if he-"

"Hey," Toph huffed, "he's good people. And I can tell he's definitely not lying."

"Katara," Aang implored, "we're all tired. Let's get some sleep. Before we do something we can't take back."

She wanted to continue, he could tell. But for him, she bit her lip and nodded. The siblings lead them to where they'd landed Appa.

He stopped to look back at Azula. Buried up to her neck. Hair frazzled. She looked defenseless.

But she wasn't. He knew better than to think that. The image Roku had shown him of flame erupting from Fire Lord Ozai's mouth.

Ozai's daughter.

And a sharp tongue. Aang still bled from the barbs. In minutes she dredged up every failure and fear in his life, exposing them to harsh scrutiny. Nudging Aang to use potentially lethal maneuvers for the first time.

If it got under his skin, how easy would it be for her to rile up a hothead like Zuko into doing something stupid and shattering their fragile peace? Or Toph? Spirits, what would Toph do to a glib Azula at her mercy? Even Katara had a temper at times.

"Toph, it's probably best if you cover her head." The childish part of him felt vindicated, as though somehow it were retribution for the taunts about Bumi. Hopefully that petty feeling would be gone after some rest.

"You sure have gotten bossy, Twinkle Toes," she grumbled. Nonetheless she made a swift cupping gesture. A dome formed over Azula's head, the size of an earthbenders conical helmet. "There. I made the earth around her more compact too."

Aang furrowed his brow. "It's not too tight for her, is it?"

Toph paused as if she'd never considered it. "She's still breathing, so I guess not."

Appa rested on a cliff overlooking the town. Aang patted his bison on the nose, proud of him for making it despite how tired he must have been.

The four of them huddled against Appa in a collective pile of exhaustion. Aang nuzzled into the soft fur of his bison's new, freshly washed coat.

"She might need an air hole," he mumbled.

"Then shut _your_ airhole and sleep so you can learn earthbending," she snapped, rolling away from him.

Aang gulped and nodded. Maybe it would provide him some extra motivation.

* * *

This is the point where things can diverge farther from the path of canon. I question where I chose to begin writing this story. It felt boring. But that was all the necessary setup, even though I probably could have done it in a more exciting manner. Small steps toward making big changes. I really like where I'm headed now.

Reviews are appreciated.


	6. Awakening

Azula opened her eyes to blackness. Blood pounded between her ears. Once sharp and fluid thoughts moved like tar. Everything below her chin felt stifled.

Each shaky breath echoed, rebounding off something. Struggling did nothing to budge her cold confines. She could not curl a finger.

Unsettling darkness and silence disturbed only by her uneven breathing and haunted thoughts. On impulse, Azula screamed to banish the darkness, then recoiled as her lungs filled with smoke. The princess thrashed to get away, hair whipping her face.

There was nowhere to go.

When she'd blinked away moisture in her eyes, her mind focused on what she had seen in that moment of illumination. The smooth surface of blue tinted rock around and above her.

Azula stilled, not even her heart beating.

It rushed back to her in painful snippets.

Chasing the Avatar. Abandoned town. Suffocating. Explosion. Defeat. Zuko arrived. Another chance.

Her grinding teeth drowned out the throbbing.

A battle. Zuko, tenacious but ineffective, a pest. The Avatar, slippery, skilled, untouchable. Grey eyes, arrow nestled above them. House exploded.

Fighting. Almost falling. Avatar's smiling face. Striking. Avatar's pained face. Wet taste of victory flooding her mouth, like biting into a perfectly ripened fruit.

Water peasant. Warrior peasant. Earthbender. Bouncing off Uncle's stomach.

Facing them all as they stood side by side. Back against the wall. Impossible to win head on. False surrender. Chance to escape. Strike on her inhale.

And then…

Defeat. They picked her apart. Every hastily crafted contingency countered, each of the four elements assaulting her one after the other.

Azula trembled as the rock tomb curled like a serpent as if to squeeze away every trace of life. Her lungs wouldn't hold air as she commanded.

Captured like a common foot soldier. Bound by the Avatar's command.

Total defeat. Complete failure.

All her training, the finely honed prodigious talent that Father, Fire Lord Ozai personally nurtured. His perfect weapon dispatched to turn his enemies into fading ashes. Thwarted by the child Avatar she'd known as weak.

Father would not tolerate this. Not at all. Azula had disgraced her divine bloodline. Disgraced Him with her pitiful performance. Even Zuko had not been captured and ransomed back to the Nation.

Azula's teeth sliced into her lip, keeping the shame from bubbling up into a screeching fire. She could not face the scorn smoldering in His eyes, replacing the pride that sustained her.

Her father was everything to her. Everything she wanted to be. He embodied the drive and pride of the Fire Nation and Azula strove to serve Him faithfully. He rewarded her excellence with a higher authority than white-haired generals who had served Azulon.

Unlike her brother, she knew how to wield power, decisively and without sentimental platitudes of weak mentalities. Azula guided troop movement by Father's side, taking advantage of terrain to orchestrate ambushes. Constructing tactics and policies to domiciliate conquered territories, snuff out rebellion. People were quite unwilling to take up arms after witnessing neighboring towns burned to their foundations.

Any griping about Father's rule or effects of the war, Azula crushed preemptively. The most powerful noble houses had grown to fear her surprise visits, but smiled and nodded as the princess helpfully reminded them of their duty to support and obey the Fire Lord.

Father trusted her to keep a knife from being planted in his back.

Now what could he trust her with? What would be left for her?

Azula observed for years how He rewarded failure. Learned from it. Emulated it. She knew what He would do if the princess were delivered in chains.

Ozai did not need an incapable heir.

How could she redeem herself?

Redemption. The word shut out noisy thoughts.

Azula calmed. Controlled her breathing. Stress melted from her muscles.

She had failed. It was useless to deny it. Mistakes, however, were made to be corrected. She wasn't Zuko. Azula studied history to learn from blunders, avoiding the missteps of history. This time she would learn from her own.

The princess would recover her honor.

Father could not have heard of this yet. A ransom or news of her capture would take days to reach his ears. She had time. To free herself and everything afterward.

Silence all who knew of this by whatever means possible. Snatch Zuko's pearl knife and cut his tongue out before he told Father anything. Then the Avatar and his ilk. Gut Iroh like a moo-sow.

They would all have to die were she to bury this shame. Azula would rise from the ashes of her humiliation, stronger than ever.

First came escape. Evaluate the situation. Use every advantage.

From the simmering in her chi, the sun had set hours ago. It would be some time before it rose to set her energy boiling with its radiance.

The earth barrier cut her off from direct sunlight, the most powerful source of firebending. No matter. She would feel it even beneath the rock, even dampened.

Breath of fire could burn a hole in the dome. Open sky would allow her to melt and explode the earth around her.

Failure to breath a sufficient blast would result in suffocation.

Noon. When the sun reached its apex, bringing her power to its peak. The earliest she could make her move.

Nearly half a day's wait. Would her captors not approach her by then? Surely they did not want her to perish from dehydration.

It occurred that she may have been left to rot, but Azula quickly scoffed at the notion. She was the Fire Princess. An invaluable hostage and source of information. Not that they could pry anything of use from her. In fact, while held captive, she'd take the opportunity to spoonfeed them misinformation.

Another unaccounted factor that would improve her odds. Mai and Ty Lee would be looking for her. They would follow the Avatar's trail of fur when they realized she wouldn't return.

What opposition would they face?

She had the utmost confidence in their skills. Otherwise she'd have never bothered to select them for her mission.

But would they be able to counter without her? Worst possible scenario, Zuzu had kept his temper in check and managed to see the benefit in maintaining the alliance that had succeeded where he alone would have failed spectacularly. Capturing the Avatar would no longer earn him a welcome home anyhow.

She imagined Mai and Ty Lee pitted against the Avatar. Iroh. Two skilled benders. A warrior. And Zuko.

In every scenario they suffered an overwhelming defeat. No force of two could defeat that.

An impossible task… if victory was their priority.

Their only focus should be to free her. Every soul loyal to the Fire Nation considered it their duty and privilege to die for Azula when necessary. To fall for such a noble cause would bring great honor on their families. As decreed by the royal family's divine edict.

And yet… they weren't faceless soldiers. Friends. A lofty term to which weak people clung for security, huddling together in hopes of alleviating the shared misery of their lowly stations.

But if anyone in her life qualified, it would be Mai and Ty Lee. She'd picked them out from the gaggle of plain girls at the academy. Snatching them up as allies before anyone else could make use of their unique skills.

Ty Lee she'd been forced to swoop down on like a raven-eagle. The girl made friends easily and everywhere. It was irritating.

Mai she'd taken her time with, gauging the quiet, gloomy girl before interacting. She'd been more difficult to read than most anyone she'd encountered and that intrigued Azula as a child. Persuading Mai to join her clique had been easy though. No one else could see her value.

There had been others, but they proved themselves too weak and were phased out. Only two had withstood all her tests of loyalty and ability.

Azula could afford to lower her guard around them in a way impossible for others, even and especially Father, who accepted only perfection. They understood her moods, the rare moments she was vulnerable.

In the recesses of her consciousness, Azula admitted that such a loss would leave her quite... out of sorts.

At that moment her sharp mind catapulted a visual: the worry lines carved in the faces of Mai's parents as they fret for their infant son.

And somehow their distress lead them to handing over the strange but powerful earthbending king. It baffled and enraged Azula.

It wasn't as if they couldn't make another one. Probably a better one! Assuming they learned from their mistakes.

Mai, however, was irreplaceable. Perhaps they would require an extra large stipend in compensation.

Hmph. It would suit them. They didn't truly care. She was just an asset to her father's political ambitions. He didn't really care for her wellbeing beyond her use to him. He'd never cared for her happiness, so long as she did as told.

And Ty Lee's parents might not even notice her passing, with six identical daughters to fill the space. They probably weren't aware she'd run off to the circus. It always took them days to realize when Ty Lee would run away as a child.

But Azula would notice. She had rescued them both from demanding, callous parents and the fate of squandering their talents on mediocre pursuits.

Now they had the opportunity to return the favor. Whatever the cost.

Azula blinked when she realized the heat bubbling around her face.

Being captured and vulnerable left her thoughts unbalanced. Unfocused and spiraling.

She centered herself with a deep breath. Azula looked at the situation with the cool detachment she learned from Father.

It would not come to that. Zuko wouldn't attack Mai. He would not allow others to attack her. That was partly why Azula had recruited her, a psychological advantage to control Zuko. He was a man, after all, despite how childishly he behaved. Easy to distract with infatuation.

Zuko also wouldn't leave her to the mercy of others. He had a grudge to settle, and would use the earliest possibility to gloat.

More than that, Zuko cared for her. No matter how she enjoyed making his life thoroughly miserable, he still carried some contrived notion of being her big brother. He was too weak. And the Avatar wouldn't…

Azula's mind screeched to a halt like an unoiled tank. Careful reassessment must be made with regards to the last airbender.

Private military records existed of airbending having such lethal potential. Soldiers blown from the mountaintops. Limbs severed. Generals coordinating the assaults were particularly startled by the gross number of casualties in the Southern Air Temple assault.

In Omashu, the Avatar had demonstrated unwillingness to use these techniques on her. Nothing but soft gusts. He only used destructive, slicing winds against infrastructure.

However, in the recent battle… Azula swallowed deeply to keep the memory from shutting her throat.

Airbending brutality on display for the first time in a hundred years, and Azula had been at the center of it. Floating helplessly. The faint tease of a full breath of air lingering around her.

She had pushed him, triggered something that backfired. It was difficult to tell what set him off after an onslaught of his every weakness. His friends, though, seemed both the Avatar's tender underbelly and strongest motivation.

Even at his most dangerous, his intent had clearly been escape. He hadn't been trying to kill her. Which galled her more, that without Zuko's intervention she would have lost earlier, or that even in her defeat, the Avatar had still been holding back?

Azula pondered this, licking her chapped lips.

The Avatar. Infinitely so. Zuko wouldn't have found them without following her. But the Avatar suffered from sleep deprivation as she had planned. And still he restrained his power.

It wouldn't have bothered if she had emerged victorious. Proving her superiority. Hunting the Avatar should have been a sport equal to dragon slaying.

Azula felt instead as though she had awakened a slumbering beast.

His speak of peace though... A stalling tactic for anyone else. The princess didn't need her people skills to know the monk believed what he said. Sickeningly earnest and honest. Wide, open, grey eyes. Like Ty Lee without the exposed midriff.

He'd been sincere. That made it so laughably foolish. As if the greatest civilization in history would halt their conquest because a monk asked them nicely. Ozai would tolerate nothing short of absolute Fire Nation supremacy.

Even if the throne lost its unmatched drive and abandoned the war effort, there would be no going backward.

Break off all engagements, release prisoners of war and evacuate every citizen from the colonies to the main island chain. It would end nothing. The world would fester with bitterness. Harness it. Build their forces and set sail for vengeance.

And if they surrendered. Azula smirked bloodily at the silly notion, but let the hypothetical scenario play out in her head. The other nations would not be satisfied with retreat. They would demand reparations until the Fire Nation was broken, poor and isolated as it had been before industrialization.

Retreat or surrender, only rolling royal heads would quell the desire for revenge.

Azula frowned in the darkness. It perplexed her more than anything. The one person who should be most honor-bound to seek revenge, and poised to reap it, preached peace. No wonder the Air Nomads died.

The child truly was a relic.

No. Never surrender. Never a step backward in any of her firebending forms. Forward. Dodge retaliation. Strike.

The Avatar did not understand that fire's purpose was to burn. He would learn this final lesson within the center of a blue inferno.

* * *

Review?


	7. Connection

He woke before the others. Aang rose from the sleeping bison and stretched, wincing from the soreness in his back. He shimmied his shirt up and craned his neck. An ugly purple bruise spanned shoulder to shoulder.

Tenderly lowering his shirt with a sad airbender sigh. Katara wouldn't hesitate to look at it, but Aang would only ask if she felt up to it. His waterbending teacher would heal until her legs gave out. Her caring heart couldn't help it.

Aang stood over the others, watching as even Katara's mouth hung open in an adorable snore. Their unkempt hair that always seemed more a hassle he didn't envy. And they probably smelled like sweat and smoke the same as he did.

Deep cuts in Katara's wristbands etched into his grey eyes. The gloomy girl with the knives.

He stared unblinking at this until a cloud passed overhead.

Aang palmed his forehead, then dragged his hand over the smooth skin of his arrow.

The others didn't stir. He'd grown accustomed to it. More so now that he began to understand who he was.

Growing up in the air temple, Aang always rose first to greet the sun, and was last to see the moon.

It used to baffle him why other kids at the air temple tired so easily. Why they couldn't play or train as long as he did. As he delved further into other bending disciplines, it made sense.

Nature energized him more than anyone else. The sun fueled the firebender inside. At night the moon pulled to surface the waterbender within. When the moon had vanished from the sky, it felt as if something reached into him and ripped a piece out.

Aang shook away an empty, sickly feeling clinging to his memory of the North Pole.

Usually the vacuum of silence irritated him. Training would occupy this time. But Aang needed solitude with his thoughts.

He walked away from his group, sitting in the lotus posture with his back to them. Knuckles of his fists interlocked.

From the cliff, through dim light, he found the small dome in the town below. He made out Iroh's figure leaning against the remains of the corner they'd trapped Azula. Aang couldn't tell if he was awake.

He closed his eyes, letting the tension fade.

Yesterday's battle had been their most difficult. Aang was not particularly proud of how he responded. He didn't think Gyatso would be either.

Striking another living creature with the deadly arts blasphemed the Air Nomad teachings. And he'd done so with anger burning in his heart.

He'd _wanted_ to hurt her as she callously predicted the demise of his friends. Ugly and childish emotions. It shamed him to feel such things. They were of the world. Only his friends brought forth such emotional tumult.

Warm, sometimes scolding yearning for Katara's affections and approval. Craving Sokka's companionship. Enjoying Toph's humor and wicked smile. And Appa was forever a part of him.

He'd been taught not to become attached to the world. Now they had his heartstrings in their palms. And for them...

I could have killed her.

Conflicting feelings roiled in his stomach. He'd restrained himself. Closer to that edge than he'd ever wanted, Aang didn't step over it. But he never should have been that close to begin with. Gyatso wouldn't have. His mentor was the epitome of an Air Nomad in ability and belief. Aang had to master the other elements, become as good an Avatar as the thousands before him.

More than that, he truly aspired to become as good an airbender as Gyatso someday.

He didn't know what to do with Azula. Their prisoner. He doubted the others did either. That's why they considered crippling her. They were just tired and scared and unsure.

Being held captive, they had experience with. But keeping a prisoner?

Azula was far too dangerous for that, certainly. They didn't have any restraints that would hold her. She'd burn through rope and he wasn't about to let an irate firebender on Appa's saddle. Fur was flammable.

The alternative wasn't even an option. His friends would understand this after they rested.

Yesterday he'd found a recurring unlikely ally in his position. Zuko seemed adamant his sister not be harmed, which Aang found a relief. Despite the duel, the blood between them was not so bad. At least on Zuko's part.

They wouldn't maim Azula, he was sure of it. Still, it left him without aim, groping in the dark for an answer. What options were left?

Katara was right of course, Azula would hunt them down again. She was… Aang hesitated to think it of anyone in such ungenerous terms, but the princess struck him as somewhat… malevolent.

On the surface. There had must more beneath her visage.

Mad laughter in the face of peace echoed in his bones. Aang shivered.

A wisdom greater than his own would have the answer. And such wisdom dwelled within. His body served as a channel for more than one soul. Aang searched deep inside himself.

"Avatar Roku," he called, "I need your wisdom."

A piece of his collective self bubbled up and sprang away from him to take shape. It tickled.

"Hello, Aang," Roku said, a slight smile on lips, hands fastidiously tucked into his Fire Nation robes.

Aang smiled and bowed his shaved head. The astral sight lifted some weight from the boy's shoulders.

"Roku, I…" he struggled to find the words. "I have a dilemma."

"Yes," he said, stroking his beard. "I have observed this with... interest."

"She's crazy dangerous! Except now she's helpless, mostly. I don't want to hurt her. But she'll never stop coming after me if I let her go. There's some other way, isn't there?"

Roku remained silent a long time. Flickering emotions crossed his face. Fear. Anger. Regret.

"What's wrong?"

"I fear I am unable to properly guide you in this matter. I myself feel conflicted."

Aang's eyebrows shot up. "What?" He broke his peaceful meditative stance to lean on his hands. "You can't be conflicted! That's my job! You're supposed to be infinitely wise!"

"Yes," Roku said with a grim, apologetic smile, "however, family is a complicated matter."

Aang sat back. "What?" he asked in a flat voice.

Roku frowned and hummed thoughtfully. "I knew Fire Lord Sozin well, Aang."

The name felt like ink in the airbender's ears.

"He was my best friend. A man whose decisions were not dissuaded by anything. I knew of his plans to occupy territory in other nations. I felt hesitant to harm someone who was once a friend. I issued Sozin a warning. Years later, he betrayed me.

"I wanted the best of both world's, Aang, to let Sozin live _and_ end the threat he posed. Instead, my indecision left Sozin poised to throw the world into chaos.

"I see much of Sozin's ambition in this girl. It makes me doubtful a peaceful solution is possible."

Aang's hopes sank.

"However, Azula is also _my_ descendant. That makes me cautiously optimistic."

Aang stared. He sat back and blinked slowly. "Azula. That girl with the blue fire. Your descendant?"

Roku nodded. "My great-granddaughter. Zuko as well, my great-grandson that is. Azulon sought out my bloodline in hopes of creating a powerful lineage of firebenders."

"Uh… It worked?" he offered with fluctuating, befuddled cheer.

"Yes, they are quite talented children. Much better than I was at their age," Roku said with a tinge of pride that pricked Aang's patience.

Roku sobered. "For this reason I cannot be certain that my connection will not cloud my guidance."

Aang sat back and shook his head. He looked at Roku and shook it again."I don't know what to say."

"In every way, Aang, my mistakes continue to haunt you," Roku said, deep mourning in his eyes.

Aang sat tight-lipped. Ordinarily he would assure anyone that the blame was not theirs, trying to guard them from the familiar agony of guilt. That generosity had fled as his predecessor spoke.

His silence seemed to relay dormant bitterness. Roku grimaced.

Aang sighed. Some wise words from the past whispered in his ears. He looked at Roku.

"We can't concern ourselves with what was. We must act on what is."

It wasn't absolution, but Aang couldn't hold a grudge very well.

Roku seemed taken aback. Fairly the closest he'd seen the dignified man to gawking.

He wore a smile as one did when greeting an old friend. "You are wise child, Avatar Aang. This is one of many trials along your path. It may seem overwhelming, but you will overcome this challenge and any you encounter. The world is in capable hands. I know you will redeem me, and restore balance to the world."

People often looked to Aang for answers he didn't have. Roku's words went to his heart.

He didn't have to know the solutions instantly, but he would find them if he kept looking.

"What do you want me to do about them? Zuko and Azula?"

Roku shook his head. "Your burdens are far too great for me to ask…"

"I'm not asking Avatar Roku. I'm asking Great-Grandpa Roku," Aang asked with a disarming smirk.

For the first time, Roku fixed him with a calculating look. Aang didn't know why. "As a spirit with ties to the world, nothing would be a greater relief than to see my descendants realize and correct the errors of the Fire Nation."

"They don't know any other way to live, Roku. Spirit's sake, they were trying to kill each other yesterday!"

Roku's eyes narrowed. "Yes, the royal family is truly a," he shook his head. "Sozin corrupted the art of firebending itself."

"What's there to corrupt?" the child muttered. "Firebending is evil."

"Are you not a firebender, Aang?" he asked, raising a white eyebrow.

Aang crossed his arms petulantly. "No. I won't need it. It only causes pain."

"Fire is more than simply destruction. It is warmth and life."

"There wasn't any life left at the Air Temples," Aang snapped. He reeled back from the harshness of his own voice. He rubbed the back of his head. Where had that come from?

Roku waited him out, then said, "Firebending is the tool of the hand guiding it. With a tainted will, fire consumes all."

You are not ready! You are too weak! Jeong Jeong had told him.

"That is why they need someone to show them the way, Aang. You were wise to attempt to sway them. If you can lead them, they can lead their country."

He faded away, giving of advice to the young Avatar.

"Whatever you decide, Aang, you must _act_ decisively."

Aang released a harsh breath of air. That meditation session wasn't very relaxing. Roku's faith did reassure him though.

"Hey Twinkle Toes," Toph said, startling him. She sprawled out by his side. "You done talking to yourself?"

"Good morning, Toph. I was talking to Avatar Roku, the Avatar before me."

He awaited her astonishment with glee. Surely Toph would find it impressive.

"...Maybe you should get some more sleep."

Aang sighed. Toph picked at her toes the way he did for Appa.

"Toph?"

"Yeah?" she grunted, seemingly annoyed he distracted from her task.

"Sorry I blamed you yesterday."

She locked sightless eyes on him for a moment. Then shrugged. "Don't sweat it. I'll just have to make training that much harder for you." She punched him.

The throbbing in his arm meant he was forgiven.

"One more thing, Toph."

"Yeah?" she drawled.

"You were right."

"Naturally." She paused. "What about? The fur?"

"No. Well, yes, but that's not what I meant." The bursts of blue fire seared into his mind. Appa plummeting, falling asleep mid-flight. "We should have stayed and fought them."

She sat up with a stricken expression. "Wow, you really came around, Twinkles. I can see I'm having a positive impact already."

Aang laughed at her deprecating joke.

"You really think that, Aang?" Katara asked.

He turned to see Katara tidying her hair a bit. Sokka stretching awake on Appa.

"Yes," Aang answered as she sat by them. "I'm not saying it's always the answer, but we ended up falling apart trying to run. I know we always hold back against the enemy…"

"Whoa, whoa," Toph held her hands up. "I couldn't hold back this much awesome if I tried. Which I don't."

He rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, well, we always try not to hurt anyone more than necessary."

"Speak for yourself, Aang," Sokka said through a wide yawn, rotating his shoulderblades. "I'm not crying if some firebenders get hurt."

Aang desperately turned to the kindest person he knew. Surely she felt the same. "Katara?"

"Well," she looked away, fidgeting with her hair loopies. "I used to only think about getting out safely. Master Pakku showed me techniques meant to end things… permanently."

Inescapable whirlpools to drag the target under. Skewering ice spears. Those were Pakku's style. He thought the knowledge was to further understand bending.

He'd also thought the monks respected life above all.

"But," he gulped, "you wouldn't use them against a person, right?"

The soft lines of her lips twisted into a hard frown. That dangerous anger boiled up. "I would against her," Katara said, almost hissing 'her'.

"Wait," Sokka sprang up. He was finally awake. "Aang, you're saying you always go easy on whoever's trying to set you _on fire_!?"

"Of course I do!" he blurted. Aang shook his head. "I mean, not _easy_, just as easy as I can. I don't want to hurt anyone. _I shouldn't _hurt anyone at all if I can avoid it. If I'm quick and clever enough, I won't have to."

"So what are we gonna do with the princess?" Toph asked.

Aang felt the hairs on his neck prickle, as if Roku's stern gaze burned his back. "We're not going crush her hands. That's… cruel."

"It'll be good practice for dealing with Ozai," Toph said, drumming her fingers on the ground.

Aang stuck his jaw out in a frown. "Toph! How would you feel if someone wanted to crush your feet?"

She jerked her legs under her protectively and glared at him. He'd hit a sensitive spot. "I tell them to give it their best shot. Since I'm not a maniac!"

"I know you're not," he said with a soft tone of apology. "But imagine the pain of living like that. Everyday for the rest of your life."

Toph blew her bangs from her face and said nothing.

Sokka scratched his chin. "That's not gonna be a problem, right? Ozai won't be feeling much of anything when you're done with him."

"No, Sokka! I'm not gonna kill him either!"

Sokka's head snapped to him. Katara grew more uncomfortable. Toph didn't react at all.

"You're the Avatar! You have to kill him!"

Aang opened his mouth, then bit his tongue. His conversation with Roku hung like fresh rainfall. Right or wrong, if Roku had killed Sozin, the war would not have happened.

Ending one life would have saved countless, priceless lives. His people. Gyatso.

Did he have no choice?

No, he did. He could choose not to face his destiny and responsibilities, and let the world would burn.

Roku's choice

"So," he looked between the siblings, a horrible realization dawning. "Every time anyone told me to _face_ the Fire Lord, _defeat _the Fire Lord…. you meant kill him?

"Yes!" Sokka said, throwing his hands up. "Of course!"

Aang crossed his arms. "Airbenders don't kill people, Sokka."

"You're more than an airbender if I have anything to say about it," Toph supplied, lacing her hands behind her head.

Sokka stared at him incredulously.

"What?"

Aang could tell the Water Tribe warrior did something rare. He navigated around words carefully. "Aang. Do you remember when we found Gyatso's body?"

Aang breathed in, thinking of Appa, his favorite animal. Calming as Gyatso taught him. The cold ache in his chest faded.

"I remember," he said without emotion. "What about it?"

"Do you remember the firebender corpses around him?"

Aang answered with a stare.

"Where do you think they came from?"

"Probably from firebenders," Aang said.

"When the war came, Gyatso killed."

Aang clutched his head, trying to block the image of enhanced firebenders cornering his elderly mentor. Gyatso injured, outnumbered, choking on smoke. "Sokka, stop."

Sokka said no more, because he had made his point. Aang dropped his gaze into his lap.

It might shock people if they knew, but there were times Aang would ignore things that made him uncomfortable. He could always come back to deal with things when he was older. He had time to figure things out.

That's what he used to think.

Even his powers of denial could only withstand so much when confronted so directly.

Was that what the monks were going to teach him? To kill in war?

Gyatso said they needed him. Was his mentor prepared to guide him toward bloodshed? Dip his hands into the well of stolen lives? It so clashed the image of the peaceful monk who cared for him all his life.

Even the people who taught the value of life had killed to preserve their own and protect each other.

He wondered if Bumi had killed.

Kuzon? Had he been swept up in Sozin's war as well?

Was there anyone who could withstand this world without staining their hands in blood?

Aang removed his tattooed hands from his face.

The last airbender hadn't killed. Neither had his friends. Sokka hunted, but Aang respected the diets of others as the natural cycle of life.

"There has to be a better way."

"What if there isn't?" Sokka demanded.

Aang screwed his face up, feeling the pressure build up around his eyes. He shot a current under him, rising to his feet. He jabbed his thumb at himself. "I'm the Avatar! If there isn't a better way, I'll make one!"

He hadn't used airbending to do it, but his friends seemed blown away. Katara's shocked expression gave way to a proud smile.

"Humiliating without wounding is a fine art requiring great skill," Toph said. Aang almost detected approval in his tone.

Sokka made his groaning noise. "Fine. Then _how_ do we deal with the firebending girl trying to kill us, hm?"

"I know this might be difficult for you guys to accept, but… We're gonna let her go," Aang said.

Sokka's heart would give out early if he kept putting it through this type of stress. He clutched his chest and hyperventilated.

"You're gonna _what_!"

"Aang, she even tried to kill her own family..." Katara shuddered.

Family. Roku's family. That alone made him feel responsible for the royal siblings, more personally than the people of the world. It made him consider telling them about the connection.

Aang shook his head. He wasn't sure what to do about it himself. They didn't need more to worry about.

"I know she's dangerous, Katara. More than Zhao or Zuko. But I don't know how to deal with her yet. I'll find a way. But until I do letting her go is the best option."

"And what about when she attacks again?" Toph asked, not sounding too upset.

He looked at them, comforted by a calm brought by an inevitable absolute. "I'll fight her. And I'll win." The strength in his voice surprised him. He chuckled. "Besides, I'll be an earthbender by then. I'll bury her myself.

"Right, Sifu Toph?"

He caught a fierce grin under her bangs. "You got it, Twinkles."

"If that's what you think is best," Katara said. "But I still don't like it."

Sokka dropped bonelessly, making no effort to cushion his fall. "Fine. Whatever. Just... do your Avatar thing."

Katara tilted her head to look at her brother. "Sokka, are you okay? You've been fidgety all morning."

"I'm good, actually. Just feeling really limber." He stretched backward like a tiger-seal. "I felt cramped after that circus girl got me yesterday. Now I'm nice and loose."

Nodding with a grimace, Katara said. "Your muscles relax once the effects have worn off. It was the same way for me when she took my bending away."

Took my bending away. The words echoed in Aang's head.

Inspiration struck like lightning.

"That's it! What if I learn to take her bending away?" Aang asked, holding his hands out emphatically. "Then she won't hurt anyone!"

Aang knew this was one of his inspired ideas, because they looked at him in wonder.

"She would be harmless," Toph said airily.

Sokka muttered, then said, "It's only temporary, Aang."

"What if it wasn't?" Aang said through a smile, all his worries slipping away.

* * *

Feedback appreciated.


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